Dr Tim Clack
Chingiz Gutseriev Associate Professor, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (SAME) & School of Archaeology
Dr Tim Clack is a dual trained anthropologist and archaeologist with research interests in conflict, conflict resolution, culture, heritage and the environment.
About
Dr Tim Clack is an anthropologist with research interests in conflict, culture, heritage and the environment. As well as the UK, he has extensive fieldwork experience in parts of sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Tanzania and Somalia), Central Asia (Afghanistan, Uzbekistan), South Atlantic (Falkland Islands and South Georgia) and the Middle East (Jordan).
Much of Dr Clack's research concerns the drivers of, and responses to, warfare in different contexts. In recent years, for example, he has delivered large research projects into the role of climate change, propaganda, heritage destruction and religious identities in the shaping of historical and current conflicts. He has also led a project partnering with the Government of Jordan to create the world's first national climate security intelligence capability.
Dr Clack currently directs the following projects: Climate Change & (In)Security Project; Environment and National Security Project; Climate Security in Jordan Project; Culture and Conflict Project; Information Warfare Project; Falklands War Mapping Project; Endangered Cultural Heritage in the Global South Project; and the Mursiland Heritage Project.
Dr Clack is General Editor of the Routledge Advances in Defence Studies (RAiDS) book series.
Outside of academia, Dr Clack has delivered various specialist roles in the UK Civil Service. These include postings in the UK Stabilisation Unit, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (as it was then) and Cabinet Office.
Expertise
- War / armed conflict
- Climate change and in/security
- Environment and national security
- Cultural heritage
- Propaganda / information warfare
- Colonialism – especially the history of in Africa
- Culture wars and identity politics
- Anthropology
- Archaeology
Selected publications
- Reporting Heritage Destruction. Rouhani, B., B. Finlayson and T. Clack (Archaeopress, 2025)
- Climate Change, Conflict and (In)Security. Clack, T., Z. Meral and L. Selisny (Routledge, 2023)
- Cultural Heritage and Conflict: Past, Propaganda, Parade. Clack, T. and M. Dunkley (Routledge, 2022)
- The World Information War: Western Resilience, Campaigning, and Cognitive Effects. Clack, T. and R. Johnson (Routledge, 2021)
- Before Military Intervention: Upstream Stabilisation in Theory and Practice. Clack, T. and R. Johnson. (Palgrave, 2019)
- The River: Peoples and Histories of the Omo-Turkana Area. Clack, T. and M. Brittain (Archaeopress, 2018)
- At the End of Military Intervention. Clack, T. and R. Johnson (Oxford University Press, 2015)
Media experience
Dr Tim Clack's media experience includes numerous interviews for radio and television linked to various projects, including with Falklands Radio, Falkland Islands Television, Lincs FM and Oxford Policy Pod.
Dr Clack was a technical advisor on a documentary titled The Grab looking at food security and conflict. (The film was distributed by Magnolia Pictures and is available on Hulu.)